Infographics, or Information Graphics, are a visual representation of knowledge. It is a way to represent information graphically. You have probably already seen many infographics, but you did not know that this is what they are called. We see them all the time in Magazines and Newspapers, like the infographic depicting Osama Bin Laden’s Compound and how he was caught. They are those illustrations, graphics, pictures, arrows and text that accompany an article and that help you understand the information contained within that article.

I was always fascinated by these infographics, even before I knew that’s what they are called. In fact, one of my favorite Graphic Designers is Edward Tufte, who creates amazing infographics. Also, Nicholas Felton, whose annual reports I find to be incredible. Perhaps because that I am fascinated with these types of designs, I love to see them in other media and not just newspapers and magazines.

I remember seeing infographics and enjoying them in illustrated dictionaries, and encyclopedias I researched for homework as a kid. I always stopped to look at them, even if they weren’t related to the topic of my homework. You know which ones I am talking about, those that showed you the parts of a car, the animals that live in the water, the solar system, the human skeleton, the process of water evaporation, and so on.

Nowadays, we see infographics in other places as well. I have seen infographics being used in movies, such as the closing credits for “The Other Guys” movies. That animated Infographic was about Ponzi Schemes, the bailout, and corruption in general.

I also love te infographics in one of my favorite movies, “Stranger Than Fiction”.

There are motion graphics infographics created sort of like a video, with only typography, illustrations, and sometimes a narrative. People infographics like these to make a difference, to inform others about changes they can choose to make on their own to help. For example, this infographic designed by Chris Harmon, about the oil spill in the Gulf back in 2010.

Some infographics even tell us how to do something. Like how to make a good cup of coffee.

Expresso Infographic

Something I found very cool is a Graphic Designer’s Resume Infographic!

Elliot Hasse Infographic Resume

There is even an Infographic about Infographics!!!

Infographic About Infographics

I hope you enjoyed all of these Infographics, and now you know what they are called when you see one. I will post a collection of my favorite Infographics soon.

While typing up documents and blogs in Microsoft Word, the software is using typefaces, or fonts, to determine the style of the text or type. The title could be set up to be 24 points and the text of the project at 12 points, and the title would be as crisp and high quality looking as the other text. This is all possible because type and fonts are vector-based graphics.

Typefaces in a Word Document

A good strategy for manipulating type as a vector shape in Adobe Photoshop in the same way you would be able to in Adobe Illustrator is by converting the type into a shape. In order to accomplish this, all you have to do is open a new document in Photoshop, then type some text. Now, right click the type layer on your layers window and select the “Convert to Shape” option. After this step, your text has become a Photoshop shape and you can scale it up or down without loosing quality because now it is a vector object.

Convert Text to Shape In Photoshop

Because Photoshop’s limited text and type editing tools, I would advise you to create the raster graphics in Photoshop, then place in InDesign as a background and add the text directly in InDesign. However, it is possible to layout both raster images, vector objects and text copy in Photoshop and then bring into InDesign while vector objects remain crisp and scalable, including text. This can be achieved by saving the original Photoshop file as a Photoshop PDF or Photoshop EPS file. Then this file should be placed in InDesign.